Post-death credit cards issued

On Apr 25, 9:36 am, Stan <stanle...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> After my late wife received some preapproved credit card offers, I
> tried to email whatever credit reporting agencies (of the big three)
> had an email contact to tell them my wife had died and to note that on
> her credit record.  The only reply I got was a form about temporarily
> putting a freeze on her credit.

You notified the wrong agencies.   The credit GRANTING entities (banks, card issuers) are who you should have informed of her death.  The credit REPORTING agencies do nothing but collect information FROM CREDIT GRANTORS such as banks and stores, and provide that information to authorized members of the public (those who have a legal right to access her credit history).   They can and do accept counter-statements from the person whose credit they are reporting, such as your late wife, if she disagrees with any of the reports provided to them by her creditors, but they can't go and note on someone's credit record that they are dead just because someone who SAYS he's her widower calls them up and says so.   To do so would be an open invitation to fraud.   OTOH I have no idea whether they would accept and report such a fact if you notified them IN WRITING and included an official copy of her death certificate.   It doesn't sound like that's what you did, however.

You should certainly notify all of your late wife's ACTUAL creditors (banks, stores, utilities) that she has died, and ask them to either (a) cancel those accounts (if they are zero balance already) or (b) put them in your name if they are willing to do that.   Unless you do (b) they will then put a freeze on NEW extensions of credit, keeping the accounts open only until they are paid in full.  The credit REPORTING agencies are not going to notify the various creditors for you.

> Similarly, when I tried to tell my mom's bank that the joint
> cardholder on her account (my dad) was dead, they just about didn't
> want to hear it without written power of attorney.

That's not "similarly"; it's apples and oranges.   The bank _is_ an actual creditor, not just a reporting agency.  The only part that is similar is that you again attempted to do this by a cold telephone call, where they would have to take your word that you weren't just an anonymous prank caller or a malicious identity thief, rather than in writing with the appropriate documentation attached.   As the bank's reply told you, even if they believed you were who you said you were, they can't take YOUR word to make changes on your MOM's account without a written POA from Mom to you, permitting you to do this.   OTOH if Mom would just go down to the bank in person with a copy of Dad's death certificate in hand, they can clean it up for her chick-chock and take Dad's name off the account.

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Mike Jacobs
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